Woo, Banksy and Peru..

Is it too soon for another blog about drag queens??!!! I just asked one of my ladies Minette and she said "never too soon" so here goes....

My good friend Louise (who I met at the Look talk Max and I did at LCF last year and ended up contributing to her forthcoming book, more details nearer the time!) and I went to see Jonny Woo's latest drag drama at the Soho Theatre last night. I think it's on for another couple of nights and is HILARIOUS! A tight little script revolving around Dallas and ending up with the best Golden Girls sendup you'll see in a long time, Woo's Sue Ellen is frighteningly authentic and abandoned!

Then...there we were having an aftershow recap and a snifter when I bumped into a lovely chap I once struck up a conversation with on the Eurostar on my way back from an APC buying trip. Louise and I had just said we'd like to try to catch the CoCo Peru show and there he was with 2 spare tickets for that very show, starting in half an hour. Two drag shows in one night! Had Christmas come early?! Coco is a real trooper, singing show tunes with tweaked lyrics and doing a stand up "monoluuge" which took us through her Bronx childhood as a girly boy and eventual drag queen.....lovely, see it!

Banksy vs Warhol is on at the Hospital, of course I wasn't invited to the show, but on my way back from my power plates class, I noticed his Marilyn behind it's own little red rope...

Talking of power plates, my beautiful friend Nahid who you will have seen modelling the APC is the reason I've started going. Who could fail to be inspired just by looking at her?! This is her at her desk at Good Vibes on Betterton St, one of her growing power plates empire. I love a workout that 1. is only 25 minutes long 2. you don't have to wear TRAINERS for 3. you can do in full make-up!

Bev and I are hooked without being obsessed...you should try it, it really takes care of business!

I'm going away next week to a Victorian water tower I think in Norfolk which looks like a tiny circular castle!

See you on my return.....madame xxxx

I lost the will to blog....

....for a couple of weeks there. How British of me to be so affected by the weather but sad to say I was. I felt like Chicken Licken waiting for the doom-laden sky to fall on my head!

I think I'm over it now...which is why it's always important to remember....

Reasons to be cheerful:

1. We now do bespoke name-necklaces! And I've already got one!!! Here's mine....they can be custom-made to suit the personality of the wearer, so instead of an "o" you could have a flower or a mother-of-pearl heart for instance, or as I did, a little shard of coral (one of my favourite colours in the world, especially when it's a YSL lipstick!) instead of an "i" or a star for an "a", in fact whatever the hell you want! We've done a Mel with a star for an "e"! The idea is to mix the gold and silver theme up too, so the letters only come in silver but you can have on a gold, silver or oxidised silver chain if you wanted to go a bit goth....We're taking orders now, a silver chain name necklace will set you back £69 and a gold on £89, half up-front please and half on delivery, allow 2 weeks for them to be made up! Get creative people!


2. Jack, the student studying fashion in Brighton who helps me in the shop sometimes over the summer hols, and I have a mutual obsession with Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City books. I read them when they came out I hate to admit cos that makes me ANCIENT, but anyway, he's just written another one called "Michael Tolliver Lives", and I had mentioned this to Jack and the fact that he had been appearing in various bookshops for readings and signings etc...(Jack's only 20 and I've found myself waxing lyrical about all kinds of counter-culture gays, your John Waters', your Andy Warhols, your Armistead Maupins, like some old friend of Truman Capote's or something...)...anyhoo, there he was wandering through the streets of Brighton and who should be signing that night but Armistead Maupin HIMSELF!!! Long and the short of it is he only got the author to sign a book to me as follows "To Pippa at Maison B" !!!! Made my month!!! I'm trying not to race through it too quickly, to savour it, but I CAN"T!!! All the old friends are there....if you loved the Tales of the City's, it's COMPULSORY reading!!!


3. Emma's husband Paul took part in the shoot for Katharine Hamnett's website which Duke and Joe also popped by for, and although when we arrived late in the day, he looked his usual scrubbed-self, earlier in the day, he'd got a little experimental with a little make-up and edgy styling.....and he sent me a shot!!! How fantastic is this?! Paul love's a garish jacket or a pink trouser, but here it's like he's discovered an alter ego - who sweats glitter and goes out on the town in his smalls!!!! Never send me a pic like this if you don't want it to end up public!!!


4. Duke and Joe did a shoot for i-D!!! A fashion shoot if you please and Henry Holland made special "Hang on a min, that ki-D's a twin!" t shirts for the occasion which they were allowed to keep!!! Look out for the kid's issue in Octber!


5. I get to dj at the next Look Presents...on Thursday night AND Pam Hogg's djing and performing AND Poppy and the Jezebels are playing. You've GOT to get down there, it's like a continental oasis down south, with the best talent, the BEST cocktails and it's once a month. This one's "Girls' Night Out" but boys are also permitted...


6. Two of my best friends, Jonathan and James, got married at the weekend, and we partayed from 10am til the wee hours. So much laughing, dancing and champagne with your favourite people will banish the blues in a second! Great potato salad too!


7. Bev and I have been going to Power Plates! If the image of us two in the nearest thing to workout gear we can pull together out of our decidedly un-casual wardrobes, vibrating with teeth a-chattering doesn't make you break into an involuntary smile then there's no hope for you.......!

Cheerful lists are a very good idea. I've already thought of loads more, I'll save them for another rainy day......

madame x