Find the Cuban Girl...

I never realized how much tanner I was than the rest of my fellow models in Taipei until I developed this picture....



I guess this is why clients and my bookers were so concerned with my skin tone being too dark for the Chinese market....fortunately, I booked a few jobs specifically because of my tan because at the time the Brazilians were storming the market, and I mean, who didn't find Giselle's toasty skin totally hot?!

We Make Party, Yes?

There's nothing like looking back at old party pics of my girls and I in various global locations to put an enormous smile on my face and a little blush on my cheeks.

Prefunking in Taipei with Smirnoff and OJ that we bought at the 7-11 across the street from our hotel always made for some interesting pictures.....and some very good times....

Charlie's Angels?



Apparently I was going through a J. Lo phase with the white bandanna.....



The Taiwanese know how to pimp out disco balls....and I know how to make myself invisible....camoflauge is hot!



Getting a VIP spanking at Room 18...

Laura Leaves and a Roach Moves In

About a month into season in Taipei, things started to slow down workwise for all of us. The agency cryptically kept mentioning the economy with a shrug of their shoulders and we just kept hoping to get busy again. At this point, Laura decided she would rather be home than wasting her time abroad, and who could blame her?

We had been rooming in a tiny room, sharing a double bed and a fridge the size of a milk carton for 4 weeks. We were being promised a proper room by the hotel every other day....castings were dropping off, she had a boyfriend waiting for her at home...it was time to head back to the great white North. So, there I was saying good-bye to my friend once again. The day after she left, I found myself hanging out with Taya and Jennifer and we decided that in order to save money, I could move into their room and we'd split the rent three ways and I wouldn't be all by myself on the opposite end of the hotel. The hotel arranged to have a roll-in bed moved into a corner of their room for me to sleep in and I dragged all my crap two floors to become the third roomie.

Quarters were tight, but I was used to that, even though Taya had to climb over my bed to get out of her bed and into the bathroom. We got along famously and would laugh ourselves to sleep at night talking about castings we'd had that day or the outrageous jobs we'd just gotten done with. Everything was great until one afternoon when Taya and Jen were both working andI was home early. I was hanging out on my bed watching Chinese music videos when I noticed something move above my head out of the corner of my eye. When I looked up there was a gargantuan cockroach dangling from the AC grate, legs wiggling and trying to get back up and into the opening. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a severe roach phobia, so this was enough to put me in a panic. I called the front desk to get someone to help and no one answered so I ran down to get aide with sweat poring down my face and my heart beating at a frenetic pace. Thank God someone was there.

The desk clerk had a cleaning lady run up with me (who spoke no English) so with a bunch of arm and hand motions and eyes filled with dread I was able to tell her that there was a roach on the ceiling above my bed. She looked at me and the roach bemusedly. Laughed a little (she must've thought I was one hell of a wimpy American) and shrugged her shoulders while miming that it would go away. She started to leave and I grabbed her and basically pleaded that she removed the offender. With not a little hint of annoyance, she slowly ambled into the bathroom, grabbed some toilet paper, climbed up on my bed and nonchalantly grabbed the roach, showed it to me with its legs and feelers flailing, laughed and walked out with it. What happened to that roach after she left with it, I'll never know, nor do I care. What I am glad about is that I never again saw one of those buggers in our room again....although from that point on I had to do a full room and bed check every night before going to sleep. Paranoia.....

I Can Spell M-O-D-E-L.

Ok, ok.....so I am going to up and apologize now for any and all type-o's I have made or may make. I am normally posting with one hand while creating detailed Play-Doh sculptures with the other hand for my preschooler, and while bouncing my toddler up and down on my knees. So, I truly can spell....and really well at that. My problem here is the multitasking aspect of things.

I remember when multitasking entailed pouring a glass of vodka and cran in the VIP of some club or another while smiling brilliantly......sigh.....

Model Tourists

When you model abroad you are usually too busy doing castings and working to actually get to be a tourist. Although I always did a lot of on location bookings, I never really got to enjoy my surroundings in an exploratory way. Just kind of got to look out van windows or peer around doorways into courtyards and alleyways in between hair and make-up changes, but that was it. Meeting Jeffrey and his friends in Taipei made it so that we got to enjoy the perks of being tourists which really opened our eyes to the beauty of Taiwan beyond the bustling Taipei city limits.

On a Sunday during season that we all had booking-free, Jeffrey and Marcus talked us into taking a train out to the coastal town of Tamshui. It was a beautiful, peaceful hamlet where we got to eat the freshest seafood I had ever had to date, and where every female had to rush up and stop us to take pictures with Jeffrey. I have a shot somewhere of all of us posing with a group of about 8 or 9 teens as giddy as all get out. It was rad.

So....here we are in Tamshui....eating and blowing bubbles. The only things worth doing in life, eh? ;)

Peacock Virgins

Helllloooooo dahlings! Just wanted to throw out a note to all the newbies checking out my blog that this is a collection of my memoirs.....I am not actually in the places I am writing about currently. I am living in Portland, Oregon, bored off of my ass and reliving my life as a traveling fashion model by way of my writing.

So if you want this all to make much more sense just go waaaaaaaay back to the first entries on this blog (you can find my archives somewhere on the right hand side......) It'll be worth the hours you'll spend reading it.....really. :)

Hanging With Taiwanese Rockstars

I have to say that this particular trip to Taipei was the best one yet....but for some reason I didn't keep much written record about it. I have tons of pictures but only 2 journal entries so I really am going to have to rely on the old gray matter to remember what exactly went on. I think I was so busy with work and play that I just had no time to pull out pen and paper and journalize everything...now I wish I had! Let me preface real quick by naming names. Laura and I ended up meeting the rest of the FMI girls who all became fast friends....Taya, Jennifer, and Olivia...there were others that we hung out with from another agency, but these three were our main girls.....partners in living la vida...

One of the things that made this trip so amazing was that one night my friends and I were partying at Room 18 which was a hot new club at Warner Village in Taipei. We had just gotten done working at a fashion show and arrived at the club only to find out that it was full to capacity because DJ Scratch was there and everyone in town wanted to be there. This was a veritable quandry, since I had been so used to VIP treatment and never having to wait for entry to any club....so we sulked as models can do ever so well, until we were approached by a guy named Jeff who introduced himself in perfect English although he was Taiwanese (but born and raised in LA I later found out!) and made the velvet ropes part so that we could get in.

Jeff ended up becoming one of best friends in Taiwan that season. He was California cool but also knew all the ins and outs of being a local in Taipei since his family also lived there part time. Thanks to him, my girls and I got to dine at some of the best restaurants, hang out at the hottest clubs du jour and just have a great time hanging out in general. It also turned out that Jeff was something of a celebrity in Asia. He had been part of a boy band called LA Boyz who were to Asia what the Backstreet Boys were to the States. Pretty much everywhere we went with Jeff, we would get mobbed by young girls with cameras and giggles. It was a trip. We also got to meet his brother Stanley who was also a recording artist and their friends, Jae a music producer and Vanness who is now a megastar in Asia....actually, they all are. They're part of a crew that goes by MACHI.

Crazy thing about meeting Vanness in Taipei is that later we found out that we had both been raised in Santa Monica and went to the same grade school there.....we had played in the playground at the same time but ended up meeting decades later in Taiwan.

So, yeah....this season in Taipei we got to hang out with official rockstars. They treated us like queens, were nothing but gentlemen, sweet, generous, and respectful. One of the best group of guys I've had the pleasure to meet in my life. Along with one of Jeff's friends, Marcus whom we later met because he was crushin' on Jen, they were our entourage and we were theirs. Thanks to them we got to see the city in a whole new light and it was GREAT.

The Ol' Roomie Reunite

So, the day after I got to Taipei, I walked into the agency and there was Laura! My roommate from my last season there. It was like no time had passed. We had kept in touch via phone calls while we were gone, and it was just so nice to see another familiar face in a strange land.

Now, I'm sure I've already touched on my past with Laura, but I always think it is so cool when it comes to mind, so I am gonna tell you again. I first laid eyes on Laura in a tram in Milan my first season there. She had an Elite book and headphones on and I remembered thinking how she was the quintessential model. Tall, perfect bone structure and elegant. Then a few weeks later I ran into her again at a casting for a hair magazine. We exchanged greetings but that was it. It wasn't until several months later that we would run into each other again halfway around the world in Taiwan where we became roommates and fast friends. This proved the point that although there are millions of would be models out there who say they are actually "models" the ones that are truly working their craft travel in a small circle. I can't tell you how many times I would run into other models I knew or at least recognized from castings in the most random markets. One day in Milan, the next in Miami and then again in Hong Kong. Crazy!

Laura and I were so happy to be back in a country and city we loved and ready to take it by storm. We packed into a taxi with another model and our manager and set off that first day on a bevy of castings and ladyposed our butts off. Later that evening we decided we had to be roommates again and combined all of our crap into a tiny shoebox of a room since we were told that all the doubles were occupied and the fun began! Two days into this trip and I knew it was going to kick ass!

Coppertoning It In Taipei

So, once again, I found myself packing my bags, bidding tearful farewells to my friends, pulling out my passport and boarding pass and deplaning thousands of miles away in Taipei.

I had been to Taiwan before, so now I could consider myself a veteran. I knew where to go and what to do at the airport. I walked from my gate pulling my obscenely heavy carry-on bags past miles of hallways through the terminal that were covered in advertisements and I kept count of which ones I thought I could probably book while there. I went through customs, found my driver holding up my name in Chinese and English on a card. He put my bags in the trunk of his shiny, black Lincoln Towncar and we were off....back to the First Hotel.

I stared out the car window at the mystery and tumult that is Taipei and even though I had been in Miami just hours before, I felt myself start to get ready and excited for this new season in Asia. When I got to the hotel, I checked in and the people at the front desk actually remembered me from the last time I had been there. They were kind, courteous and all smiles as they told me where my room was, handed me my key and about 6 faxes from my booker asking if I had arrived yet and I was off to my little pad. The bellhop trudged up with all my accoutrements....poor guy, my suitcase was bigger than him...and as he left he told me I looked just like Britney Spears. Even though I should have been tremendously offended, I knew by the super happy grin on his face that he meant it to be the utmost accolade, so I tipped him well, closed the door and passed out on my rock hard mattress.

The next morning I made it to the agency, group hugs and reintroductions ensued and not a second too soon I was told that I needed to maybe try to make my skin less tanned. After almost 4 months in Miami there was no way I was about to look Geisha chic.....so I smiled, said "no problem" and hit the casting circuit with my manager and a couple of new girls that would become really great friends in no time. Taya, Olivia and Jen. Things were good already....and only to get better since my roommate from my first trip to Taipei, Laura, was to arrive the next day!

More Cheese & Sex from Miami

And here is a sampling of just a few of the tearsheets I got from that season in Miami. Once again, the Dutch, German and French clients cast me as a teen queen and the Italian and Spanish clients interpreted me as something of a Lolita....

For your viewing pleasure....ha!

Modeling Too Much!

Wow, I am super slacker when it comes to posting on here lately! I've just all of a sudden started booking photoshoots locally and am starting to put together a completely new book....I've been wanting to get back out there for direct bookings since I can't actually travel long term anymore (becoming a mom put a halt to that!) and this new work I'm doing is hopefully going to help with that! So coupled with my writing assignments, Peacocks on Leashes has suffered a bit....but I am anxious to get back on here. Don't give up on the Peacocks just yet.....they'll be back fully plumed by next week. I have heaps of stuff I need to scan and post on here, because I know everyone is just dying to see my German magazine tearsheets. Fabulosity.....

And Yet Another Journal Entry from Miami...

Here are my musings at the thought of leaving Miami and heading back over to Taipei for season....

2/26

So I just found out that I'll be heading back to Taipei in a few weeks. Although the prospect of going back to Asia and making money is exciting, I'm starting to feel a heaviness in my heart knowing that before I know it, these past 4 months that I have spent in South Beach will soon be nothing more than a series of memories and pictures in an album.

The apartment that I have come to call home, the streets and faces that have once again become all too familiar, the sea and sand I look at daily from my window and that I have come to take for granted, the friends, my adoptive family members, that I have known since last season, brought with me from Milan, or just newly met...these are the ties that bind me, that cause that all too familiar feeling of infinite sadness when I allow myself to realize how soon they and it all will be taken away from me. That torturous process of being a traveling model. Bittersweet life.

South Beach once again will remain a most vivid and beautiful place in my memories.


********

I have to say, that when people ask me what the hardest part of being a model is, I really can't tell them stories about awful perverted photographers trying to coke me up, or rape me. I dont have stories like that, thank God....but the worst and hardest part for me was being uprooted from "homes" and missing my friends. Friends that I miss to this very day. I have yet to make friends that were as close to me as those friends I made while I was traveling.

Miami Inked....

Actually it was more like Miami Pierced. For a while I had toyed with the idea of doing something a little more drastic than just cutting my hair. Even though I love a good tatt on a hot guy, the idea of inking myself has never been all that attractive to me besides the fact that in the Asian markets at the time I was working them shunned models with body art. Naval rings kinda piqued my curiosity for a while but then just seemed too stripper to me (or moronic Sorority girl) so I took that off of the list of possibilities. But I was bound & determined to figure out something...and thanks to my roomie, Paul, we figured out that tongue rings were the coolest thing and my mind was made up.

Paul and I both decided to get our tongues pierced one night during a dinner convo. He told me that once I got mine done, it was cool and didn't kill too much he would get his done too, so the next day I went to a tattoo/piercing shop with Jackie to hold my hand through it and did the deed. The funny thing is that the parlor I went to was called something like "New Age Tattoo and Piercing" and was located where Ami has his shop now (Miami Ink....in case ya didn't know....). The other funny thing is that I remember partying with Ami long before he became super hot famous thanks to his show (which I love by the way...). But I digress...so Jackie took me in, I signed all my disclaimers and convinced the piercer that I was over 18, he sat me down on the chair, grabbed my tongue with his hand (not pliers or anything else) and pierced. It barely hurt. He then told me not to eat any solids for a few days, drink liquour or give oral sex (after which he added, "unless it's for me"....cheeky bugger) and I was on my way.

Walking back to the apartment we ran into Paul playing volleyball with some other models and he freaked out that I had actually gone through with it, loved it, but ended up chickening out in the end. Ha!

That night, like the well behaved girl I was, I followed my instructions from the piercer to a T. I did not give anyone oral sex (not even him), but I went out to Living Room with my friends, drank, went home, woke up to go to Volleypalooza the next day, drank a little more and ate a sub sandwich by shoving pieces of it towards the back of my mouth and chewing with my head tilted so as not to disturb my healing tongue.

It healed well despite my lack of obedience and I was officially a rebel. Heh!

Rotating Roomies

And as aways happens when you're traveling and starting to make that crazy, almost instant sibling-like bond with your roommates, one or more of them get called away to different markets or just back to the normalcy of their homes.

Sometime around the middle of February, Amber had to head home to Portland, and Kari (who was day by day growing out of wanting to model anymore) left for greener pastures in Seattle where she would start going back to school. Ned moved out and into a house with Tyler and some other models and Paul and I were left in the Decoplage. While trying to figure out how we were gonna split the massive rent on our own, the heavens parted and a new roommate came our way.

During lunch poolside at the Delano, Neil and Cormac introduced me to Miyuki who had just arrived and needed a place to stay. Cormac asked if I had room at my place, and the rest is history. Miyuki moved in and became fast friends with Paul and I . She turned out to be a fantastic person to live with and a wonderful friend. Her outer beauty was only surpassed by her inner beauty. So nice, thoughtful....and could party with the best of us. The rest of the season had us going to castings together, dining at Pearl with Neil, Cormac and friends, and partying at Nikki Beach. The good life continued for a few more weeks and I was taking it all in because by mid March I would be off to Taipei again for another 2 months. (This, of course, meant that I would be maniacally slathering myself with the highest SPF possible at all times....a tan in the Asian markets was not a good thing and I was already looking a little too burnt toasty.....)

More Model Mayhem from Miami

Just a little pictorial of some of the good times had in Miami that season. Good friends, good places to hang out, good eats, life does not get better than that.






Yes,that really was Pauly Shore.

My Model Boy Shout Out

Looking at the previous post about my NYE in Miami back in the day made me really think about how great of friends I had back then. Many of them are very much still in my life thanks to email and Facebook, but none of us live in the same city, save for Amber and I miss these old modeling days friends like crazy.

That being said, I have to dedicate this post (aka give a shout out) to my boy Jean-Paul. From the moment we met we became instant friends. He was always brutally honest with me about everything and was always sincere. We could tell each other things most friends keep to themselves. He has heard of and met many of the skeletons in my closet and I know several of his. No matter where in the world I'd be, JP would always call me up just to give me a shot of confidence and a smile. I remember one time sitting at a casting in Milan while he was in Miami and I was having a craptastic day when I got a call from him and he said something to me that I will never forget. He said "Telling a girl she is the most gorgeous girl in the world is crazy. There really isn't such thing, but you I want you to know that you are one of the most gorgeous girls in the world." That was all I needed to change my energy that day. I didn't book the job I was at the casting for, but I knew that out there in the world I had one hell of an amazing friend. I miss that boy. My baby bro.

New Year's Eve-ing Like a Rockstar

Rather than try to dig up a really accurate account of this amazing night, I am gonna lift my story straight out of my travel journal...far more to the point and in the moment that way. Not that I was so lambasted that I don't remember what actually happened, because I do remember....even though I was lambasted....but anyways, journals are always far more to the point...so here we go...

1/1/2001

A new year. Wow.

I had the most amazing New Year's eve last night. JP came over and 8 and we started drinking and watching "Half Baked", then we put on some CD's and started dancing around the living room like two little kids having the time of their lives. Around 10 we decided to walk down Ocean Drive. There was so much energy. People everywhere, everyone happy and partying. Totally drunk on life and liquid. We walked all the way over to Nikki Beach and JP and I got into Linley's party free because Paul was working the door. We got to ring in the new year with champagne toasts on the sand getting rained on by the snow machines. It was beautiful. Then we walked back to my place to meet up with Ned, Pauly and Tyler who had been working at a party in Naples and continued our drunken festivities. We bonded so much last night. Me and my little crew. Too much fun. I am gonna miss these boys when season is over. Miss them like crazy.


JP and I at the Nikki Beach NYE party:




Little me and two more model girls...I feel like an ass, but I don't remember their names....




Linley! Good friend and host of the party...




NYE throngs on Ocean Drive....pura vida...

Coming Up.....

I have been hit with a nasty cold and am about to fall asleep on my laptop...but stay tuned for my next post with pictures. New Year's Eve in Miami. To date that was the best NYE I've ever had.....God, what I wouldn't do to teleport myself back to that moment. Totally beats the post nasal drip, crusty eyed craparific time I am having right now....

More Middle Model Musings from Miami

The sea breezes and sunshine definitely made for some introspective moments during this particular season in Miami. Here are some musings from a model mind while waxing & waning philosophical:

12/29

We think ourselves to be so grandiose. In our own eyes our lives seem to be the center of the Universe. Everything revolving around us, when in fact we are merely an infinitesimal speck in the grand scheme of things. Our impact on the world, with the exception of a few astounding individuals, is so minor that if we were to disappear tomorrow, everything would continue on as usual...the earth would continue to pulse, grow, nourish all those still existing on her surface. We would be a mere memory in the minds of the few we allowed into our guarded worlds while we were still gifted with the breath of life.

12/30

The year 2000 is almost over. The first year I learned to truly live, to come alive. The memories of the past 12 months overwhelm me. How much have I changed, I wonder? Am I a better person? Worse? Perhaps both? I won't attempt to seek an answer to these questions. You can only dig so deep into your psyche before uncovering strains of madness. Whatever, whoever I am or have become, needs to learn to grow more comfortable in her own skin. Comfortable in my own skin...I wonder, does anyone truly, wholly, learn to do that? One is always growing, expanding...can you harness your spirit to flesh? Perhaps what I need to do is take comfort in knowing that I will never truly know myself.

*******

Yeah.....models can get pretty deep. Funny how you never see or hear any talk about this kind of stuff on any of the modeling reality shows that are taking over TV. Modeling makes you realize how insecure you really are. It hands you a life of glamour and luxury, breaks you down to nothing, hands you some more glamour, breaks you down again, then takes you back up to incredible heights. Roller coaster ride. Welcome to Model Mountain. Keep your arms and legs in the car at all times. You'll need them to book work.

But at Least We Got a Good Shot....Kinda

In recompense for the fact that we shot for free and ended up actually paying for jeans we would never wear, we got some pretty decent shots for our book. Here is one of them:



Prior to post, Kari was actually climbing a chair that was upturned on the floor but it got edited out for whatever reason, I don't know why. So, although I think we look good and the dresses (I wish we had bought those instead of the jeans...but the designer was asking $300 a pop) are beautiful, it kind of looks like I am smelling my friend's flatulence with a look of consternation on my face. Still like the picture though! Fart-chic.