OLD BLOG: Tour Blog 17: the strip club (abridged)

October 16, 2007

Last night in Kokomo, Indiana—where my father was born—I went with some of my fellow tour-folk to a strip club. Mainly to be social and observe the atmosphere. That's not a metaphor for naked chicks. When I say "atmosphere" I mean the way different customers act and how un-into it the girls dancing were. Some of the cast and crew were already there celebrating our sound guy's bachelor party. He's getting married a week or so after we finish the tour.

The club was called The Hip Hugger. All the girls wore thongs that seemed a too small and cut across their hip—like the extremely unflattering style of pants. That just looks wrong. It ruins the line of their hip. And most of these girls were already lacking in the hip area and seemed butt-less and too skinny. There were only a few dancers that I liked. There was one who looked good(-ish) and had a sense of humor about what she was doing. The other wasn't necessarily the most attractive, but onstage she really moved. She was kinda wild. Neither of these 2 girls moved the way the others did—that standard, bored/boring, slow-motion thing.

Somebody (or bodies) in our group paid a girl to do that face/breast-squishing thing to me. I've never found that kind of thing exciting or interesting. It just seems stupid and childish. Later they paid the same girl—who I didn't find all that attractive: no hips or ass and just not that great-looking—to give me a lap dance. Well, I didn't want one. It's not just that I found her unappealing. I don't want some random girl rubbing on me because someone paid her to do it. The guys were all saying "Come on, Maestro!" Several people on this tour have nicknames, but I don't use them. I wasn't in on their creation, so they don't mean much to me. And the guy who started it probably always calls his music director or band leader or whatever “Maestro”.

Anyway, I gave this already-paid-for lap dance to someone else. I would've sat there the whole time thinking how I wasn't all that into it. Or instead of a lap dance I might've just talked with her. Maybe I should've done that. But honestly I'd rather sit and talk over coffee somewhere without the loud pop music. I thought maybe I should write a play or musical set in a strip club. I could interview people who worked there. That might actually be interesting. Eventually I left, had a drink that I could actually taste in my hotel room and watched TV for a while. And I have to say I basically found that at least as enjoyable as the strip club.

OLD BLOG: Question—please feel free to answer—seriously

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Why am I attracted to women who don't know who they are?
(This question brought to my attention by Greg—in a day off, drunk-ish conversation.)
(Seriously, I am asking. If you have any theories, please feel free to share them.

OLD BLOG: Tour Blog 15: make-up

October 10, 2007

I overheard one of the girls saying that sometimes she has a bad dream in which she's getting ready for a show, she doesn't have make-up, and her hair is all messed up.

Now this girl isn't the most made-up person I've ever known, but as far as I know I haven't seen the actual skin on her face, even when we have an early morning bus call. (Of course, maybe I'm too tired to pay attention to her. I often try not to pay attention to her or the other girls.) I realize that make-up is necessary for a show, so you don't look washed out. But it seems to me that she might have nightmares like that about everyday life: having to go be somewhere in public without make-up or good hair...or the right bra.

This particular girl seems to wear a pretty serious bra. It looks like it's holding things up and giving them a fuller shape. Now I haven't seen her breasts, so maybe they are shaped like that, and maybe they do sit up there on her chest like that. But I kind of doubt it. Oh yeah, and she's serious about the eye-brow shaping. I bet she would have some really beautiful, full eyebrows if she'd just leave them alone. But as things are, they look just a little too sculpted for me.

I guess what I’m saying is, this girl seems to epitomize the crazy "girls have to look a certain way" thing that our society puts out there and which I find very unappealing.

OLD BLOG: Tour Blog 14: food and recycling (abridged)

October 08, 2007

I’m developing some sense of how people who, despite their awareness that the way we live is destroying the planet on a daily basis, can just keep on living their lives the same way. It's partly convenience and habit. You can tell someone, "Hey, I'm taking bottles and cans and stuff to the recycling place. If you want to set yours aside and give them to me, I'll take them when I go." I did that this summer. And while many people comment how good it is of me to do that, they don't put anything aside to recycle. Those people may put cans, etc, in a recycling container if it's right there next to the trash can and someone else takes care of emptying it. But there are still those who won't even do that.

There was a summer theatre day camp in the same building as the actor housing. Daily, I walked by a trash can that was full and overflowing with bottles and cans from the lunches the kids brought from home. So I put a box with a sign that said “recycling” and listed what could be put in there. But there was always recyclable stuff put in the trash. And yes, I fished stuff out of the trash to recycle. It was amazing to me that people would choose to put things in the trash instead of in the recycling box. Is it laziness or ignorance or what?

I was also surprised by the amount of food and beverages that was thrown out: half-eaten sandwiches, etc; other things that weren't eaten at all. Is that how it is at every school in the country every day? How horrible and how easy to change. Do parents even know how much their kids are wasting? If schools or other programs made the kids take what they didn't eat or recycle back home for the parents to dispose of, maybe things would change a little. What if the parents had to sign a little slip that said they were aware of how much their kids were wasting? There's a neat idea. Anybody out there on a school board?