why i love deeta von teese

On the evening that the movie Burlesque premieres in LA, how ironic that I should find a quote from the Queen of Burlesque that I totally agree with.....

My kinda gal

HP: Have you ever had a stylist?

DVF: I had stylists for about three hours once. I felt like there was one point, it was probably about eight years ago, my former husband was working with a stylist of course because he always had stylists, and she said to me once, 'Hey, I can help you with your closets.' And I was like, 'Oh, ok, ok,' and so she came in to my closet and I remember she picked up a pair of 1930s shoes and I remember she said, you know, 'These would look so cute if you wore them with jeans,' and I thought, I don't even have a pair of jeans, I don't wear jeans. And it was sort of that moment that I thought a stylist is someone who puts what they think is good on someone else and I know what I should wear and what I shouldn't wear. And I like the process of coming up with outfits and it was just sort of an a-ha moment like, you don't need to buy into this thing that Hollywood believes in, which is that you need someone to reassure you that you're doing the right thing. I'm doing the right thing. If I'm not, I'm only going to blame myself....At least I can say I made a bad choice, but it was my own bad choice, not someone that got paid thousands and thousands of dollars to do it for me.

What Alan did next

Here I am in the much touted padded cell made of cotton candy at the Performa fundraiser on Saturday. It was insane! I think I am still high. And of course you can see that there were as many photographers inside the cell for a minute as hungry sugar-seekers

I also went to the Hugo Boss/Guggenheim award announcement. Here I am being very bold.  A very nice German man won the 100 grand prize. Yes, a hundred thousand dollars! They don't muck about in the art world. I just love the Guggenheim museum.  It is such a beautiful and terrifying building. It is also quite amazing to be in a museum and be drunk

On Sunday, thanks to the very kind folks at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, I had a screening of my episode of Who Do You Think You Are as a fundraiser for a really amazing organisation called Give An Hour.  It gets mental health professionals to give increments of an hour of their time to returning military personnel who have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and they in turn, have to do the same amount of community volunteering. Please go to the website and check them out and see if you can help in any way.

Also last week I hosted an auction for the American Foundation for Equal Rights which was all about selling art to raise cash for the Prop 8 trial appeal. I was very excited to be part of such a great event and I got to meet the plaintiffs in this historic case and also David Boies, one of the lawyers. Here I am with my friend Bruce Cohen who, with his husband Gabe, organised the evening.

Also the other week I went to the launch of Stan Lee's new foundation. Stan is of course the daddy of superheroes. Here we are having a laugh on the carpet

What else? Oh you know, same old, same old. I did a PSA for Cyndi Lauper's I Give A Damn campaign. I did a talk for the National Library of Scotland's American Foundation about my inspirations. I did the international press junket for The Good Wife. I went on my friend Daniel Nardicio's Shit Show and talked about Intact America and my belief that circumcision is genital mutilation. And last night I sang a coupe of songs at the Hiro Ballroom for the Ali Forney Center, a great organisation that helps gay youth. The evening was the launch of a video about the center and the release of a cover of That's What Friends Are For by me, David Raleigh, Billy Porter and Ari Gold. Check it out on iTunes soon

Look out too, for a new Cumming fragrance.  Guess what it's called? Yes, that's right . The Second Cumming!! Really.

What?

Last night I was the MC of the Performa Red Party. Performais a great organisation that produces amazing and groundbreaking young artists' work and has a biennial festival in NYC.

 

It was quite funny to realise that a year ago when I attended the Performa opening night I was a blond.  See pic of me and the charming Penn Badgeley.  But luckily some things never change.  Last year we had a to fish about in frosting sugar to find cakes, and last night dessert was a padded cell made entirely of cotton candy (or floss for British readers), which you pulled off and munched. I have never had so much sugar in such a short time. I felt like a crack head.

This is hilarious...

obamica

Last night I went to bed very sad.  I felt sad that people seem to not be able to see the bigger picture.  The Obama administration still seems to be being blamed for the mess Bush left behind.  How could the economy have recovered in such a short time?  The whole world financial infrastructure nearly collapsed on Bush's watch.  The defecit was huge under him, and it is bigger now because Obama and the Democrats have been trying to create jobs and kick start the decrepit economy they inherited. 

Oh, and whilst they were doing that they managed to pass a health care bill that will ensure more people than ever who never had access to healthcare now will. And yet, they have been punished. Punished for not clearing up their predecessors' shit quickly and effeciently enough. And punished for daring to ensure poor people won't languish in ill health.

But today, I don't feel so bad. It could have been a lot worse. When any country takes a quite radical political turn (like electing a black, left-wing man) there is always a response that is askew in its intensity and, hopefully, longevity (like the Tea Party, who must be one of the few political groups of modern times whose rallying call to take to the streets and demonstrate was the terrifying prospect of poor people living longer).

As you know I have my issues with Obama on his timeline for gay equality.  But I think his vision for this country is the kindest, fairest and most thoughtful of any politician out there. I just think he needs to be better at selling his message, sort out his adminstration's PR blunders, be louder and prouder.

The Tea Party is evidence that people can have the wool pulled over their eyes so easily here. Its basic tenets of less government and a lower defecit are ridiculous considering what less government did last time and, as I mentioned above, the defecit problem was of their own side's making. So it is all the more important to make sure that our side is better at communicating to these people about issues that they connect to, and not to try and engage with the propaganda they are being fed.

Yestedray America did tell Obama that it was not happy with how things are going. I think it needs to be reminded of what he is about, and especially that he is going to stop engaging in the political griping and territory marking that he promised us he would try to snuff out.

Ok, here's a picture of me at my Halloween party at the Soho Grand hotel last Saturday.  I opted for dead flapper girl. This is kind of how I felt last night.

PS If anyone lives in Barcelona, please read this and give the Pope a heart attack (or a hard on).

Happy Halloween!

Here's a video I made in Sydney last year with my friend Queenie.  It is a hoot.

After much response from my friends and the studio audience at Jimmy Fallon's show on Wednesday I have decided to listen to the public and go to my Halloween party as a flapper girl.  Or more accurately, a version of the person wearing the dress I wore in Cabaret on Broadway.

You see I rather bizarrely kept the vintage dress as a memento when I left the show.  I reasoned that it was so frail and frayed by the end of my run that it wouldn't be of any use to the next actor who played the part, and indeed it didn't fit Michael C Hall, who replaced me.  And also it's nice to have something that you can just look at and remember so much more than the sum of its parts.

A few months ago I found it in a box.  It looks pretty shabby but it still has some lustre.  You can see the white make up I wore all over my body still there on the inside of it, and the ripped bits by the armpits where it was a little too tight.  I am slightly anxious that my body shape is not utterly the same as it was when I wore it last.  Also I am sensing that the slight lack of lustre might better be parlayed, in a make some lemonadee sort of way, into a dead flapper girl?!

I will post pictures of whatever variation I plump for.

Wow

My post about my frustration with the Obama administration and its mixed messages regarding DADT and the repeal of the Defence of Marriage act has caused a sensation! 

Last night I performed a benefit for Fight Back New York at Joe's Pub and was joined on stage by Cynthia Nixon to talk about this organisation that has been borne out of the same frustration I feel, Bridget Everett who sang Miley Cyrus in a way we will never forget, and Dan Choi who again echoed my feelings that although we are told that change is coming it is not good enough for people to be fired and ostracised for being honest about who they are.  As Dan said, there should be no time schedule for integrity.

I was dismayed to read my blog entry as part of some articles saying that gay people are not going to vote or are thinking about voting for a party other than the Democrats next week.  Despite my frustration and anger at the way we are being treated, or more accurately derided or ignored, I would never consider voting for anyone other than a Democratic candidate.  I will vote for Obama next time too.  I think in America there is a very knee-jerk reaction to political outrage: if we are unhappy then we turn away completely.  I know how important it is for all our welfares to keep the Democrats in power in both houses, and I am striving to do that.

I really hate the idea that people think not voting is some sort of feasible protest.  It isn't. It is stupid and irresponsible.  Let's discuss, cajole and yes, be angry, but never forget the horrific political alternative that is all too recent.