Show me what you’re made of

I have recently discussed how much I despise shows. The castings that make the Godfather feel like a blink of an eye, followed by fittings and a waiting period with the sedative power of 100cc of ketamine (horse tranquilizer).  Also discussed recently was how I just don’t book them, well something changed. What? I honestly couldn’t tell you, I have put on a couple kilos of muscle so I am certainly not smaller.  

In the past week the number of shoes has shot up to 4. My legs walked and posed for H.E. by Mango, Hugo Boss, Supersports (I work frequently for them) and just yesterday Guy Laroche. With the exception of H.E. I can provide explanations of my bookings. You ready for em?

Let’s start with Hugo Boss. This is personally one of my favourite designers, which provides a slight bonus. Other than making the round side of a hippopotamus look attractive, these clothes fit me perfectly. My body shape have wider shoulders and back, tapering into a thin waist and then thick legs. Boss suits need no tailoring to fit me properly. The glove fits so I walked.

Guy Laroche and Supersports. Well that answer is simple, clothing doesn’t really have to fit when it’s a speedo/underwear. If walking around in small underwear isn’t awkward enough, lets throw you in front of a hundred people with a spotlight on your genitals.

My opinion hasn’t really changed at all about fashion shows, as a matter of fact its likely been reinforced negatively. Although its not all complaints, the Guy Laroche show was a lingerie show with 13 beautiful and a thai celebrity (Kae Chollada or something). Worst case scenario I would still regard that as a positive experience for any straight guy. Unfortunately I cannot embed the pics but you can enjoy this link. Big thanks to the guy that edited me out of the video, you don't need to see that :P Guy Laroche Lingerie

Just Cavalli

Things have changed over the course of time since I last gave an update. As I mentioned before I will be moving to Bangkok in the coming week.  Either the 10^th or 11^th of March I will be departing Singapore for my next adventure. As soon as I have confirmation on my work visa, my flight will be booked.

I updated you on my shoot with Irwan; I also helped him shoot a buddy of mine this past Sunday. It was his first time ever doing a test shoot and Irwan was kind enough to share his time to work with him. While the first shoot is always difficult I feel like my buddy learned a lot and will come out with at least a couple pictures through this.

Canadians! Awesome news, bad timing. I have met a ton more Canadians in the past week or so. I have met a guy from BC, another guy from Saskatchewan and 3 girls from BC as well. While I haven’t had a chance to have in depth conversation with all them I can tell you that Brandon (from BC) is a super chill guy and has had lots of experience modeling, just came here from Tokyo where he was for 7 months. I am a little jealous of that and had tons of questions about Japan. One of the girls from BC and I chatted while at a model dinner and shared our love for nutrition and health. Hanging out with a taste of home was certainly a treat, but did start to make me home sick, something I don’t’ normally feel. 

My exercise schedule has been a little lacking this week. While I did have a tough workout on Thursday, Friday and Saturday that would destroy even the toughest of granite, I decided to tone things down for a week. Just some running and lots of walking. After 3 tough weeks of 2 a days, and huge amounts of biking, this was a good treat and my body thanked me by recovering. I have leaned out just a little bit over the course of this time, dropping to about 75 kg from 76.5. So about 3 pounds has been lost, which is nothing significant but it shows. I think this is a suitable place for me to sit around, 75-80 is considered ideal for my body size. 

After a casting on Monday and a bit of running around Tuesday and Wednesday, I had a fitting for a fashion show. Many of you know my thoughts on fashion shows; it’s a bunch of hurry up and waits. Lots of waiting! But in the end the actual shows are always fun. The designer for this week was Roberto Cavalli. When I told Marlon about this he was surprised that I got this as a direct booking, and even more surprised that the naïve model I am had never heard of Cavalli. Note to models, know the designers. The show on Thursday night was “Just Cavalli: Spring/Summer Fashion Show”, the first time these clothes were to be seen in Asia. I thought that was kind of a cool honour. We tried on the clothes; some really flashy sets and one really cool one. I wish I could afford it.

Time warp, and Thursday flew by, it was a rainy day and my umbrella broke. Relatively good timing to break too considering I leave in just over a week, but you think she would hold out until maybe next Thursday. We had to be at the venue (Attica, a popular nightspot club) for 4:30 and I naturally arrived at 4:15. Early enough to help carry some equipment in. Then started the dreaded part of fashion shows, the wait.  It was close to an hour before everyone arrived for rehearsal. The stage was small, but the music was live band, which I thought would be kind of cool. After 30 min of rehearsal, back to the waiting game before the show. Learning from my previous rookie mistakes, I brought a book. I wanted a book that would be easy to pick up and put down. Glancing through Caryn’s books, I spotted one that flashed back memory to my university roomie Megan. The book “I hope they serve beer in hell” by Tucker Max, is not a book that’s for the faint of heart, nor is it one that makes men sound like anything less than a riled up stud with 2 things on his mind, sex and drinking. While this isn’t my lifestyle, I figure it is one way to live vicariously through someone else and maybe worth a laugh or two. Anyway this was an easy way to help kill time until hair and makeup.

I don’t know what the deal with makeup has been lately, but this and the event in January, I seem like I get caked on. I felt like there was too much on but I think anything is too much so you never know. Make up done, my hair slicked reminiscent of Christopher Reeve. 

2 hours later we were finally dressed and ready to rock. Here we are ready to rock. Behind the scenes snap of my first set, I would love to own this jacket, its awesome. Unfortunately the jacket its also 4 maybe 5 thousand dollars. 

Flash! The whole thing was over. Even with 8-second holds before you know it it’s all over. And after a full day of waiting the show is over like a flash in the pan. All the excitement and fun of walking is done. Normally I would hang around after to mingle with the crowd, but I have been feeling tired, a tickle in the throat and a runny nose. This as I have learned a long time ago can be nipped in the butt before it transitions into a full-blown cold.  

This is so Cavalli

I have moved onto my ginger tea and honey.

Shoulders back, chest out, stand tall and googly eyes

Yesterday turned out to be an interesting day. I didn't have much for expectations but I met a few new friends, networked a little and had fun all the while.

Thursday was as usual, gym. No pool though it started raining as I finished. At 2, the plan was to meet up with Mel and a few friends. Mel has been an incredible friend for me here so far and I can't stop saying thank you. A bit of a guardian angel for me, a big sister watching over me. After we chatted with my new friends now too, her and I grabbed a coffee (well you know me and my tea). We talked a lot about the industry, so much insight from her experiences. One of the things I learned is that is probably a good idea to style my hair more often. Keep my presentation top notch all the time. I don't walk around looking like a slob that's for sure, but I don't style my hair very often. Part of it could be that I never know how it should really look. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to meet maybe stylist around here.

We parted ways and I headed home. I spent some time reading and then prepared myself for the evening. I was invited to a fashion display so I needed to look casual smart, this actually meant ironing a shirt and throwing on more than just flip flops. Thankfully my feet have recovered from that nasty swelling when I first got here. Deb and I met up and headed to the event.

I had no idea what to expect, but we met up the rest of the crew and joined it. There were about 30 people there. Servers were walking around with glasses of prosecco and little treats. I was certainly hungry at this point, I actually wanted to eat beforehand but traffic made my bus ride and extra 20 minutes longer than it should have. Bruschetta on crackers (nope), how about cream cheese things ( i will pass) and then BAM! It felt like a bolt of lightning, raw oysters with a garlic hot sauce to put in. They were amazing, exactly what I needed. I love oysters if you didn't know that. I have had food poisoning once from them a few years ago, but my stomach is long recovered. I probably had 8 maybe 10 of these throughout the evening.

This one I thought was the coolest

As the show started it was 2 models showing off the new Renee L collection. Sexy, and conservative at the same time, the perfect wear for a woman in Singapore. Or at least I think thats what they said. Naturally I took a few pictures, to commemorate the event of course. One of the models I think was trying to hard to look tall, I feel like she was leaning to far back, arching her back, it looked incredibly awkward. Have I become a cynic to how other models walk now? I am by far no expert, but I hope I don't look awkward like this.

After this was done Deb and I grabbed a bite to eat, the food wasn't memorable for one of the first times. Then I hopped on the bus for my ride home. I became disappointed, as this was the first time I actually had a seat on the bus. I learned that they don't make buses for tall people here. I couldn't physically fit my legs into the seat. I had to leave them in the aisle.

It always looks so cool on Orchard

A Tiger is waiting in the freezer

Today was a very slow day work wise for me. Jet lag is starting to clear from its ugly path. Although I was still significantly tired this morning. I jumped out of it with a morning Skype session, followed by the pool and the gym. I need to put on about 1 inch in my chest measurement, so that means bigger chest and bigger back.  My back is getting well taken care of with swimming, because face it I don’t swim that often and I can feel it pretty much every day. So today was a day to pump my Arnold sized chest into action. I cooled off and achieved some cardio in the pool afterwards.

I set up a meeting with the wonderful ladies at the agency to pick up my allowance and chat a little bit. We talked about my cat allergy and they all suggested Zyrtec from the pharmacy, its apparently not to expensive and works like a charm. My cat allergy hasn’t been bugging me that much. But I am very cautious to close my door any time I enter or leave my room. I spend very little time in the common area as a result. Only slightly off topic. During our discussion we talked about the new Pics from Luke Elijah and how we were quite pleased with them. We also discussed about building my book by doing other test shoots. The trouble is actually find a time that works for both a photographer and me. Good news of course! My schedule will be quite busy for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The details haven’t all been confirmed yet, but I got the corporate video gig, also the condo development one and I have another fashion show for Friday. If I were a little more androgynous I would likely let or a squeal or some crazy prepubescent Justin Bieber excitement sound. Instead, I am super stoked.  The video is a 12-hour day, which is kind of crazy. I think it should be fun too. Good experience…adventure.

After leaving OMM I was somewhere between Chinatown and Little India. I went back to the hawker centre that Pat took me to last week. I went straight to the same place to get an Avocado juice. So awesome. Lunch hour was tapering off when I was there it was close to 2:30, so many places were sold out and closed. I found that kind of interesting that many signs have an opening time say 11:00am and close when they run out of food. I found a soup place, to try something different. I wanted this pork rib soup but they were sold out. So I asked the guy, what the other 10 people in line had ordered. Majority ruled and I asked for Buddha Jumped over the Wall with some rice. I swear I took a picture, but it’s not on my phone for some reason. L . Anyway this soup had everything, oyster, squid, pork, chicken, celery, carrot, some sort of root vegetable, mushrooms, probably more that I can’t remember. He also gave me this little disc with a sauce in it. I dipped my finger in the sauce and it almost knocked me over, so salty. It was hot too which I love, but I didn’t use it.  The verdict, way to much food. It was decent I would probably give a 6.5 out of 10. The roasted duck the other day was an 8. Worth the experience for sure.

I saw 4 of these police special command vehicles today. This was outside a bank.

I wanted to continue my adventure so I Crip walked my way over to Dhoby Ghaut station and searched out the printer guy to get my new pics for my book. Curious the whole way I walked into 3 or 4 malls, just to see what they had. There are stores here where you go to play your FPS video games, pretty cool, although I have better things to do. I also darted in and out of the malls, as it felt more humid today than any other day, probably because it rained most of the afternoon.  

Melissa also got back to me and introduced me to a friend closer to my age here in Singapore and also a very experienced woman in Hong Kong with modelling. 

I came home for a bit, watched an episode of Dexter. After much effort I finally found a site that streamed video here in Singapore. If anyone has suggestions they would be greatly appreciated. Then the gurgle of my stomach called me to go grab dinner. Here it is:

I stopped by fair price picked up a few snacks, nature valley bars and some more nuts. And because I haven’t in a while and I have been craving. I spotted this and thought of Dad. He calls the bums that ask for money downtown this. 

And finally I bring you the title of my post:

I titled the post this so I wouldn't forget that my beer is sitting there. This will be my first beer in Singapore.

 PS. Thanks guys I cracked a thousand hits sometime over the last day or two. 10 countries are represented. 

Hints of Asian

         

I haven’t taken my melatonin yet, but fatigue is setting in. Awesome! I am getting used to the time change. That or the fact I had a long day. To top it off I was in an air-conditioned mall for most the day so getting outside hit me that much harder on my walk home from the train. Immediately cranked on the a/c and put on my shorts. The downside, 2 late evenings home has caused me to miss pool time. What a shame. Well I do have all day Saturday and Sunday.

I left off on my way to BR to buy some socks. I decided against it and just did bare foot in the dress shoots. I tell you it was a good idea. Upon my arrival back at 7 For All Mankind, we were asked to stay until the show.  I have met a few buddies while waiting. Its rather interesting how some people you can carry a conversation and others you can’t. The 2 gentlemen, which I clicked with both, happened to be from the same agency as me. The 3 of us represent OMM male talent. Clemens is a tall german fella and Rafa is from the Phillipines. They both seem to have their head on straight. The other models were sociable as well, but I didn’t have much of a conversation with anyone else. Many of the women were Russian and the language barrier was quite significant. All beautiful nonetheless. 

Hiding behind a curtain we hung out for what seemed to be an eternity. It still was quite long though, over an hour. 5 minute call time. We were all dressed and ready to rock the runway.

Word of advice: Don’t cross your arms when wearing clothes for the runway ( you get in trouble as I learned very quickly)

I should really have asked what the beat was but there was a 4 string quartet playing smooth criminal before the walk so here you go.

We were now at the point that the whole week had been leading up to, the runway. Choreography all set and simple, we just had to walk now.  As you walk down the runway, you have an eternal gaze. Our instructions were to look bad ass and have attitude. So not giving a **** about what people are thinking was what ran through my mind. Strong face, laser eyes, and slight clench of jaw, all very stoic.  Camera’s are flashing everywhere and there are professional photographers stationed at places where you pose. Pose, hold until flashes stop, then keep moving. Nice and simple. When you are off stage, its no holds barred get changed. Pants, shirts, shoes are flying everywhere. Each person is assigned someone to help them put on their new wardrobe.  Then you roll out again.

Once we finished, we put back on our normal clothes and went to mingle. We didn’t have to stay, but I was hungry and really wanted a glass of wine, and that I did. Red of course. After a few pictures with some random people, Clemens and I had a brief conversation with a very outgoing and nice guy Keith. Then I moved on to chatting with a beautiful woman Melissa. Melissa is a publicist and works on bringing concerts and the like to Singapore. She complemented me on my look and mentioned that there is hints of Asian in me and it will do very well in this market. We also talked about Hong Kong and Taipei, and a little about Japan as well. I don’t know if the modeling industry is all about networking, but I figure the more people I know the better. Melissa older than I am but she said that her assistant and some of the other people she works with would be more then willing to show me around Singapore and take me to the beach, etc. A very thoughtful gesture I must say.

Finally when leaving I got handed a gift bag. In it is a $100 gift certificate to 7 for all mankind, a complimentary wash and blow from Salon 360 and a free classic manicure from Vedure. Now the first one makes sense, I know if I decided I could use that. The second one I may pass off to one of my female modeling counter parts. Do I do the same with the Manicure? Or do I try a manicure for myself? I have never done something like that before. This is all part of the adventure right?

The evening turned out to be pretty awesome. And to top it off as I was leaving the Marina Bay Sands, there was this elegant skyline. Sorry guys, I don't have any pics from the show yet.

                                           

I have now just taken a few melatonin and will be crashing momentarily. Good night. I appreciate the comments. I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing.