Thursday, January 03, 2008

Blue Men, Painted Pavements & Winterfest Work, Dec 2007 HK

After leaving Bristol, I spent a day at Jake’s – his wee Eloy isn’t talking yet but is a charmer! The next day Gee collected me and we drove up to Connel in his ‘new’ car, an old BMW. (I took my trophy to show everyone - it was way too big and heavy to pack for Hong Kong, besides the catamaran not having any flat surface big enough for it!) Definitely comfier than my wee hatchback and a lot faster even without me driving it. Not that I was allowed to, Gee rocketed us up there….It was fab to blather away like we used to, it seems I have only ever seen Gee for a few hours at a time the last few years!


Connel was lovely, as usual, Gran seemed on good form. Gee & I started scanning in her postcard albums. When she was sent to that special gifted musicians school in Vienna (?) before the war, she wrote a postcard home every day, and the pictures themselves are fascinating. A lot has been lost due to the bombings during the war, and many are real snapshots of Nazi soldier, Hitler, etc. Her comments are great too, things about being hissed at by Troopers as they didn’t realise they had to salute when passing war graves, or that Hitler seemed very nice and everyone loved him…..

We were only able to stay until Sunday, and stopped in to see Grandma & Grandpa black on the way back down, as cousin Penny was there. Then back down to Jakes for a brief transferral of my stuff, and I drove off in hideous rain to see Dad & Janet in Stamford. Due to accidents, bad weather, roadworks and finally a hail and sleet blizzard, I arrived far later than I had expected and my car wasn’t well – the lights stopped working. I got that fixed later on but had to miss staying at Sammy’s in London on Monday night because of it. Probably just as well as I had so much to pack it took hours!

I met Sammy for tea in Paddington station on Monday, and we stuffed ourselves in the pub. The flight back to HK was my best yet, although it left several hours later than expected. I was looking around thinking some people must have boarded already but we ended up with each passenger having a whole row of seats to themselves – luxury, space to stretch out in!



Peter and the cat seemed fine though it was even harder to find anything onboard when I got back!

Pete had started borrowing different types of boats and entering sailing competitions, or crewing on bigger competing boats, and had been doing rather well. He’s now talking about trying international competitions. It was finally cool enough to have a blanket, then a duvet in bed. HOORAY!!! I LOVE duvets.
Even better, as she's grown up a bit AND hates being cold, the cat stays cuddled with us as long as she can in the mornings!Best is its nice enough to sit out of the bar/ cafe at Middle Island without being too bothered by humidity or mosquitoes - but during the week, we are usually their only customers!

I had market and party bookings form the weekend I got back, so was kept busy.
I bought a fab bean bag for Petes Xmas from the markets (and had to lug it around bookings all day). Its a shark that say 'I eat bottoms' on it. Very sensible. We stuick it on the rowing coach Johnny's head, and plan a sereies of similar photos of it on all staff.....


The features editor for the main English language newspaper, the South China Daily Post, wanted to do a story on me and my wins, and after several days of emailing questions met me in a coffee bar and made me talk for over 2 hours. AND then had more emailed questions the next few days! Then a painter I have talked to occasionally online, Ambah, from Australia, emailed to say she was being flown to HK to paint a body a day for a week and could we meet up? She and another lady who was a sculptor met me in Central, and I dragged them round the usual streets and shops to give them an idea of Hong Kong. Then we went back to Middle Island, as I had the first of my Tourist Board bookings that night.
Zani arranged these – as part of HK TB’s ‘Winterfest’, street performers would be appearing all over the place until January. I was one of the first to go on, and had a huge wadge of paper with the place and a photograph (spot to stand circled exactly!) in my bag. That was the last days of November and the first few bookings were on a dingy sloped spot at the bottom of the steps running beside the outdoor escalator in Soho. Not scenic – by the bins – but in the main bar/ restauraunt area. A big team from the Tourism Board were there too, dressed casually, supposedly to accost passers-by for free face painting. (it took them a while to get the hang of that, and to realise they HAD to stop the queue when I said or people would bully their way in and make me late to finish. Not that I minded if I had no bookings after, but there was another performer waiting). Every one I painted got a nice wee santa hat with the Winterfest Logo embroidered on it. I was only doing 1 hour slots – I don’t usually take less than 2 hours, but as I had something like 30 bookings from these guys I said OK.


Anyway, the first few Soho days were OK, as we caught the kids going home to school.
I did cringe for Big Ben who was on after me the first night, as there was a low banner, the steep street and a taxi-run just beside us and he was trying to do his uni-cycling show…eeek! The second Soho night there was a fabulous Cantonese balloon twister on after me – he insisted he spoke no English but had HUGE biceps, a tartan outfit, and all the Jackie Chan giggly girl moves and poses.
He was obviously keeping the crowd in stitches with his banter too, whatever that was! What was also a bit annoying was the stickers; fair enough, I wore the big TB Winterfest ones as they had hired me, but if we were working at a Mall, they too had stickers to put on me. One gig at Times Square I felt like an F1 race car, I had so much ‘sponsorship’ on me And was miffed the band ion next got away with 1 each! That 1st times Square gig the newspaper doing a feature on me sent a photographer who not only took a few of me on my camera for me, he designed the big one with me looking into my mirror for the paper.

After that some bookings were a pain as they switched to between 5 and 8 pm, rush hour, and it took me ages to get anywhere. I had to take taxis as I was using my big tall make-up chair and adapting my technique to paint from behind the person in it, as I was on show and attracting a crowd. I was doing fast stuff, and usually the team underestimated how many people/ I would get through and had to scramble to unwrap more hats, but every face wanted a photo with me, the team wanted a photo, often there was a press photographer or the official Tourism photographer…
it all ate into my time but I was bashing out at least 20 faces most hours if there was a queue to work with. I got to meet some entertainers I knew and a lot I didn’t, including a great Brazilian band who wowed a massive crowd at Times Square after me by singing a Cantonese hit perfectly too. Then there was the New Orleans style group dressed as Christmas food who scared the organisers by jumping off the stage to wander through the crowd as they played. Some of the Kowloon gigs, like beside the Star Ferry Terminal,

or on Nathan Road, were great, but others tucked away in unheard of ‘shopping malls’ and back alleys were a waste of time. Especially if it took 2 hours for me to get there, 15 mins to set up, paint for an hour, then 30 mins to clean & pack and another 30 min taxi home…..Some of the gigs were so deserted each act stayed to be the audience for the next just so they weren't alone

(mainly the Soho ones were empty - most other places were ok).

Still, I learnt a bit more Cantonese from the team. And Pete was an angel and walked round to meet me most nights to help cart my gear back. I can carry it OK but getting on & off the cat with it I'm a bit iffy....


Sue came out one evening from freezing Norfolk, and we met her after work, me arriving still in full fairy gear. There followed a week or really lovely weather and a LOT of shopping. On her birthday we got wigs (mine were for Sammy as she doesn’t like her new short haircut)

Sues new jacket & hair
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.

and lovely embroidered coats from that stall I like. Pete had arranged champagne and chocolate cake in the main club (which came in tiny squares) , and we then had a posh meal upstairs in the compass room.



Ambah rang up to say the PR day for her and the newly opened kowloon Mall, “Elements’ which had hired her, was moved to Monday and they wanted 2 bodies painted by lunchtime – impossible for 1! She got them to hire me (she was brought out as an ‘international painter’ as there were not supposed to be any in HK already) and I stayed over at her hotle with her as we had to start at 7 am. I had to pretend I was her assistant and just helped a bit. She was even to tell the papers she thought I might be quite good at it, after trying with her that morning. Not exactly true or great for me but I got to paint a nice Eastern European girl and chat with Ambah, and will hopefully get some good photos of my dress from her. She was also embaressed as the PR poster for her listed countries she hadn’t painted in and photos of bodies that were not her work – including stuff done at the World Championships I was at this summer – I recognised the Wolfe’s model for a start! But in HK they really don’t worry about copyright….

The set up was a bit lush – a room in the Kowloon Airport Express station, set up with snacks, tables, etc; a manager from the Australian entertainment company who looked after Ambah and all the other Ozzie performers they were using, and she had got all her paints etc paid for too. She had designed and built a cool box, to look like a shop window, which was where we took the models when we finished them, and is where she painted all day every other day. This time we had about 4 hours to paint the girls as animal themed dresses (the mall promotes fashion) – I was told ‘butterfly’. That wasn’t time to do the backs or make the art look like real fabric, but it worked! She had a long photoshoot and interview, then I dragged her to the paint shops in HK as she wanted to buy some of the brands I had that she had never seen before but liked.

The next day my feature came out. I was surprised – as well as the pic of my 5th in world Face Awards model earlier on, I got nearly a full page!
I’m not convinced with some of her quotes – aside from the lady who painted on my rugby 7s team and got me to arrange for a beginners face paint kit for her own use, I don’t know ANY other painters in HK.
And the opening quote that ‘desperate housewives want husbands transformed into Brad Pitt’ that caused a lot of trouble to explain! She kept asking for silly requests I was given, and I said that (it happens a lot).
But then the editor kept emailing asking HOW I did that and didn’t get that it was a sort of joke, that I’d need to give them surgery etc…..
still, its good PR!I was getting recognised at most bookings, or talked at about what turned out to be my photos in the paper.

The day after, I got a call from House of Sirens, an events company I have been meaning to meet up with for ages. Ambahs manager had told them to call me; they were arranging the PR events for the 'Blue Boys', another Ozzie act on in the mall Ambah was painting at. I thought they meant the 'Blue Group' the guys in navy blue shiney paint I saw on the Royal Variety Show once. So I turned up at the planning meeting with that. But, no, its really 1 guy as a pale blue alien angel in a suit, with 4 dummies wearing casts of his head, that are posed in shop windows etc. I suppose its an alternative living statue thing, rather than the guys in white on street corners! Anyway the PR was going to be 5 actor/ models painted the same blue in matching suits, wandering HK's MTR (underground trains). I had to find a paint close to the proper colour, which of course neither of the makeup suppliers stocked and with 1 days notice I could not mail order in time. I ended up getting shimmery blue fardel creme, the same as my liquid specials, though I hadn't used that form of it before. So at 7 am the next day we had reached the far north end of the Kowloon line and were painting the head & hands of these guys.
Typically they had to wear white shirts, and despite being powdered and sprayed the paint was coming off on the cuffs etc. I'm not entirely sure why - all the painting I have done so far has been fine once dry - maube the creme stays wet. Still, they looked great, and after coaching from the originator Neil (who wasn't taking part this time) the guys set off. A bunch of students were so fascinated they followed them along the platform and train passengers were coming form carriages to look.I was changed into fairy dress to shoot off to the New Territories for another party gig once I was paid, and for once had no notice paid to me.
The MTR people seemed veryt uptight, refusing to let the guys practise in public as they may have caused a scene (which was the idea - they were also advertising the MTR!) and had specially cleared seats in a tube carriage. The blokes were following the lead or dancer Renee - the idea was they moved slowly like shoaling fish, all mimicking each other. I didn't actually get time to see Neil's show in action, though I was scared by the dressed dummies with his face in the changing rooms a few days later. And bumped into a crowd of people painted blue badly with blue wigs on, handing out flyers about him in Central the next week!


The 'Site Specific' body painting as part of YAF's Urban Dance Festival was on Sat 9th, a fairly chilly day. when they first approached me I wasn't too keen as they wanted Veruschka style stuff and I pointed out that was very hard and usually only done for photo shoots, with the artists running back to check perspective of her work from the cameras viewpoint all the time. Still, they were keen, so after a lot of 'no, we have dancers here' at all the points I wanted to work at, I agreed a spot where my model could lie flat on a pavement with 3 different textures/ patterns in it.

IMG_0433s
Originally uploaded by calpizzakitchen.

They also hired Alice the beginner (well, I have never seen her work but 1 mum told me she took 45 minutes to do 1 girls buttefly face which is a bit much!) I mentioned before. We had to paint the faces on a few roving characters before we started - I did 2 'butterfly' ladies to the exact printout I was given - neither matching nor very butterfly or pretty, odd! Then we set up. I was beside 2 big poles where people came to sign up to get free ipod tours etc, and we had several dance performances around us. It wasn't warm; I had blankets for my model to lie on and wrapped her up to start with her legs, but we still stopped often to warm up in coffee bars. She wanted to watch a friend who happened to be in Linz's (head of YAF) dance group.
So we went into the Swire building for that.
Swire sponsor a LOT of artistic stuff, and their multi-level building houses some huge amazing art peices too. Anyway, even with all the breaks and disturbances (TV crews interviewing her etc) I decided we'd finish a few hours early so I could clear away my paints and let the photographers loose, as well as giving the model a chance to take breaks when she wanted to. Despite the almost cartoony style I used
(a happy accident when I smudged the paint splatters worked perfectly) I was pleased. I didn't see if Alice finished hers or not, as I had to run to another Winterfest gig in Kowloon - I did my face in the taxi as we queued for the tunnel under the water!


I did the posh party on the Peak again for Zani – the host owns the Café Deco group I think.
The tables looked stunning in black and red, and as well as me a man was doing photos to be turned into decorated Christmas cards, there was a clown, a balloon twister, a magician, Santa Claus, a band, and a giant candy cane on stilts greeting guests.
The hostess was delighted that it was me again, and that she recognised me from the papers and kept introducing me as the worlds top painter. I did explain I wasn’t! That weekend was my first Winterfest gig up on the Peak in the Tower as well – amongst crowds of Tourists beside the entrance to Madam Tusaauds!

Also for Zani I went to Macau, to the famous Macau Venetian Hotel which I think is one of the largest in the world. I'll skip the panic realisisng as I bought my ferry ticket that I couldn't use my IDcard and needed to go home for my passport, and start after I got on one of the vast fleet of luxury dedicated buses. Over some lovely bridges past off miniaturised cultural building (sort of 7 wonders of the world it looked like), I got off at a bus terminal. Which was the hotel's!
A fleet of guides directed me through coach loads of arriving guests to a hall, where I was pointed to another hall with an information desk. They handed me a 3 page map (like the Natural History Museum's), marked where I was to go and told me to walk 'that way for 20 mninutes'. I thought they were kidding!
But no. We were to be in Ballroom J (yes I did pass signs/ escalators for ballrooms with the letters up to J, and from what I could see the unopened bits of the hotel, it will have even more). It was MASSIVE. I stopped at two more desks to make sure I was on the right track, passing shops, huge banqueting restaurants, etc.
Nice carpets and chandeleirs, but I felt the fake wall and cupola 'paintings' (sort of printed wallpaper) let them down. Anyway, all i had to do was paint Zani's face white and help him work out his new costume! Though I did end up lending lots of stuff to the girls dressing as Venetian courtesans.
The hotel wants to be the world leader in conference hosting and it looks as if they definitely have the space and facilities - the 'holding' area outside the ballroom whee Zani performed first was bigger than most hotels entire function suites! And had its own 4 escalators and 10 large function rooms and massive marble bathrooms...
Zani had a break and we went wandering around as much of the outside as we could in just over an hour. Bits of it are beautiful replicas of Venice, with blonde gondoleirs paddling their boats against a skyline of 24 hour builders putting up more casinos. We walked through the enormous casino but photos were banned (shame as I loved the dragons painted over 1 section!). Zani and the 2 mimes then took me on a taxi tour of the casino areas, and we got out at one of the poseher ones as he wanted to show me what a place going for the luxury rich crowd rather than the bulk audience was like. BIG difference - being gweilos we wandered in unstopped, to huge hand embroidered framed kimonos and amazing glasswork. We had a free drink in their casino while we got lost, then watched a fabulous fountain and fire show set to music ("Holding On For a Hero" - but good!).
Then we went back to the ferry and tried to buy tickets for the 10 pm boat. No, we were told, we had to wait for the 2 am! Even though they leave every 15 minutes! Its a totally stupid system, as they only sell a few tickets at the terminal. Then everyone who can't get on the one they want rushes, with their later ticket, through customs and joins whichever of the 6 queues they fancy. Zani tried the 10.30, the mimes were in 11 nd I was on 10.45. As the departure time nears, all 'real' ticketd holders just walk in, and at the last minute the crew let through a few hundred people in the standby queues. If you don't make it on, you have to dash to another queue to try again. Ridiculous and VERY tiring. I was lucky so got us all on the 10.45 - thank goodness Zani was so tall, I could spot him to wave to charge up and collect the mimes! Still, we got back to HK after midnight, not fun! I had to wake up Pete to row over and collect me.....
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