Life Ball

One of my favorite jobs I've ever worked was Life Ball.

Life Ball is a HUGE annual AIDS charity event that goes on in Vienna Austria.

The event takes place at the city hall building.

They build a huge stage that extends far out from the building.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Before I go any further I want to express how upset I am!

I had a horrible camera at the time and have very few pictures from the event =[

Merely writing doesn't do the event justice, matter of fact, neither do pictures!

But I'll try my best.

So it all started with our plane ride there.

We had an entire commercial airliner all to ourselves!

Which came with free drinks, even alcoholic ones, and snacks. And believe me, people took well advantage of the open bar.

The nicest part was I had an entire row of chairs to myself. I made a make shift bed and napped the whole way there. Well, that was until a very drunk Andre J sat on my head.

Once we arrived there was a red carpet rolled out at our plane door. There were celebrities on the plane, one being Amanda Lepore.

Next we checked into our hotels, had fittings, and a welcoming cocktail party.

The event hosts a wide range of performances. From dancers to singers, to speeches, to fashion shows, and so on. I was a part of the sexy Agent Proovocateur lingerie fashion show.

The next day was show day!

All of city hall was cleared out for the event. There was a huge stage built coming out of the building to the outside. Where a crowd of 20,000+ people gathered. The whole event was packed with celebrities. Also, the event was a costume party! All of the guests arrived in costumes. And extravagant costumes at that! It put halloween to shame.

To be honest, I don't know much about what went on during the show. I never got to see it =[

But I do know that it was crazy! Dancers, singers, performers of all kinds.

Then it came time for our sexy Agent Provocateur lingerie show.

After the entire show had finished was a huge party. There were 9 different areas within city hall that were all like a different night clubs. Their own djs, bars, dancers, and crowd. It went well into the morning! I didn't leave till 6 something AM.

After that we got breakfast, headed to the airport, and traveled back to America.

It was one big party weekend. One of the best jobs I've ever been hired for.

And an experience I'll NEVER forget.

Look Back: Hong Kong

Since I started blogging a good time after I started modeling, there's a few good stories I haven't shared.

One being, my trip to Hong Kong.

I was signed with Style Model Management and lived there for 3 months.

It's really hard to describe 3 months in an Asian country in a blog post.

There's so much to explain.

Modeling, entertainment, and a completely different culture.

So I've broke it down to a list of Pro's and Con's.

Things I liked about Hong Kong, and things I didn't.

Pros

- Work

Hong Kong had a ton of work. I was working at least 2 times every week. For those who aren't familiar with modeling, that's a good amount. I'm not talking about castings either, I'm talking about actual jobs. Also, I don't recall once ever getting paid in trade. Trade (getting clothing instead of money) is pretty common in Nyc.

- Clubs

I had some of the most fun I've ever had going out in HK. Models got serious hook ups there. Free food, free entry, free drinks. I spent one night hanging out with the LA Galaxies, the LA soccer team! I even got to go to a Tiesto concert on the beach!

- Cheap

While I was there the exchange rate was ridiculous. 1 US Dollar = 7.5 HK Dollars. I really wish I would have done more shopping!

- English

Hong Kong used to be a British Colony. So while they do speak Cantonese (Chinese language) they also speak English! Pretty much everything is written in English as well.

- Subway

The subway system there was AMAZING. I never knew how much a good subway mattered. But they have it mastered. Everything is so easy from boarding to paying to transferring to exiting the station. It's also super clean and kinda artsy. Nyc is really lagging.

- Activities

There's a ton of things to do in Hong Kong. You can visit temples. This is one that was across the street from the model apartment where I lived.

I visited Disney Land there!

The city also had a mountain top, Victoria's Peak, that was the highest spot in the city. You could see all around. Sadly, I had a horrible camera.

Cons

- Smelly

I HATE going to china town in nyc. Why? Because it smells like dead fish and other random putrid unknown smells that hits you like a tsunami. Hong Kong smells the same way. Granted there are a lot of areas that aren't so bad, but then there are a lot of areas that are. Really. Bad.

- Food

Here in America I LOVE Chinese food. But Chinese food in China is not Chinese food as we know it. First, they have a lot less health regulations than in America. When I was there, there was some recall on pastries for having anti freeze in them. There's a lot of markets that have live animals and inserts and wiggly squirmy things that you can go pick out to eat. I remember walking through one once that had live snakes. Also, it's perfectly acceptable to burp.

- Pollution

The first thing I noticed when I got out of the airport is how grey the sky is. It's from air pollution. There's always a haze.

- Price Haggle

To some price haggling would be in the Pros list. Not for me. In America if an item is a certain price than it is that price. There's no negotiating. In HK it's weird not to haggle. Which was a very uncomfortable thing for me to do. I often avoided buying things just for that reason. However, HK does have a ton of street markets that are a lot of fun to walk around and dig through.

I'm really angry I didn't have a better camera while I was there.

Overall Hong Kong was an amazing experience and the good far out weighed the bad.

I'll upload a new post soon with editorials from Hong Kong.

Look Back: Auckland, New Zealand

Since I started this blog sometime after I started modeling there are some things that I've never covered.

My first trip ever was to Auckland New Zealand!

That was the most unreal actual sunrise I've EVER seen.

AMAZING!

I was signed with Clyne models in Auckland.

Just to clear things up New Zealand is a country below Australia, not a city in Australia. You wouldn't believe how many people I've come across who think that.

It's most well known for its scenery. The Lord of the Rings was filmed there.

Anyway, back to modeling...

I lived in NZ for 3 months.

It was one of the most fun and most depressing times of my life.

I went there with another model from Elite, Jessie Snow.

Amazing girl that I'm still friends with today. She taught me how to cook!

We lived in a nice house outside of the city.

Here's a few images from the back yard and neighborhood.

Pretty beautiful huh?

The neighborhood was gorgeous and really safe. That lake was created by a volcano.
But, we had bedbugs! Which made our time very....itchy.

Auckland city itself was busy.

The terrain was a lot different than New York. There were a lot of steep hills and it somehow always felt like like you were walking up hill.

The cross walks make interesting laser sounds.

And they drive on the other side of the street.

The beautiful part about NZ was the scenery. It's absolutely stunning there. The sky is so blue, bright blue. And the grass and trees are really green. There's mountains, beaches, volcanoes, lakes...my camera doesn't do it justice.

Here are some images from various outings.

One of the crazy things about NZ is that prostitution is legal there.

I often saw transvestite hookers screaming at each other across the street. I wanted to snap a picture with one of them but I didn't dare ask.

While I was there they had a huge parade. But not like any I've ever seen before.

It was a parade for the adult film industry!

I took a few videos of the parade but due to nudity I'm unable to upload them. However, here are a few still from the parade....

I still can't believe this was allowed down the biggest street in the city!

This post is long and picture heavy enough.

I'll upload some of the work I did there in another post.

Cayman Fashion Solstice: Day 4 & 5

In case you missed what's happened so far on the Cayman Island Fashion Solstice event trip,
Cayman Fashion Solstice: Day 1
Cayman Fashion Solstice: Day 2
Cayman Fashion Solstice: Day 3

On Sunday, Day 4, of the Cayman Island fashion event trip we were supposed to have an island boat tour.

However, there was a tropical storm that made the water really rough. So we ended up not being able to go.

Instead we started out the day eating breakfast together.

From there we went on an Island bus tour.

I just want to say a big thanks to Aysha and James who were our bus tour guides. They were so fun, sweet, and welcoming.
Here's some photos from our Island tour =]

A local native

The bus tour was a lot of fun. We got to see a few neat places on this beautiful island.
After we went back to Tikki Beach for late lunch. I had the same Jerk Chicken Penne Pasta. It was just too good not to have again.
Then we all took a picture together! =]

After Tikki Beach we all went back to our hotels. They were having a going away party at Tikki Beach later that night. But I skipped out. I was in serious need of sleep, and I had school work to catch up on.

Monday morning Kacie and I got up, had breakfast and went straight to the beach.
A few of us laid out for 2 hours before it was time to pack up and head home.
It was so depressing to leave such an amazing beautiful place.
The Cayman Islands really make you love life.
I highly recommend a trip there!
<3

And on a final note I want to thank everyone who took part in this event.

A special thanks to Terry Donovan and Cindy Rosan-Jones for putting on this event and taking care of EVERY thing!

A thanks to the sweet Alva Page, Memsor Kamarake, and Carlton Jones.

To all the talented designers, your collections were amazing.

Thanks to all of the hair and make-up team. The dressers and assistant stylists.

All of the restaurants, clubs, event hosts, the Ritz (even though you kicked me off the beach! lol), the Marriott, our tour guides, and everyone else!

And of course, all the beautiful models!

Cayman Fashion Solstice: More Photos

This post is part of a series of blog posts. If you haven't read about the Cayman trip, get caught up!

Cayman Fashion Solstice: Day 1

Cayman Fashion Solstice: Day 2

Cayman Fashion Solstice: Day 3

There's 2 days of my trip left to share. But I keep finding more and more photos!

There's so many photographs, and I'm sure more to be found.

So I figured before I continued my tale, I'd share some more images from the show.

Okay, Okay. I'll quite with the pictures.

Last post from this trip coming soon!!