Bayangkan hiduplo... @ Q! Indonesia ;-)

What a welcome. It remembered me of Zurich Airport, warmly welcoming the French - for whatever reason -.. it is the first time in the tour the first words I read are: DEATH PENALTY. I have to think about the questionnaire I had to complete before entering the Indonesian territory: are you carrying film material? are you importing pornographic items to the country? Well. Is a stuffer pornographic? A dildo? A harnass? Is a multimedia show burnt on DVD a film? Shall I cross yes or no? I let you guess :-) at any case: I managed to get in easier than in Israel!!

Jakarta is a HUGE traffic jam in a pre-national-day fever... I thought I knew what it means to drive like mad after my experience in Sri Lanka, but there is obviously always a possibility for improvement on this earth.. :-) It is stricly speaking possible to go by foot, but practically impossible. At any case: any transportation from A to B necessitates half an hour at least, wherever you go, better: one hour. For sure if I write a song on Jakarta, it will be about the traffic...

Actually, no! it will be about the LADIES'FLOOR of the fully booked hotel. I tried to explain to the receptionnist that it might be quite a hassle to have a room on a floor where no man is allowed, with a female security guard taking care of any unwelcomed visitor with a beard and an obviously masculine outfit - there is no other possibility for me than to ask for a specific escort to go to my room on the 15th floor. Every night!!! The Ladies' Floor :-) Do I look like a Lady? The security Guard decides than NO, pretty much like everybody here adressing me as a man, if I wear a beard or none - this is not a relevant indicator any more here. Or not a sufficient one ;-)

But still, quite a lot of participants have been enrolling for the king's workshop. Concentrated faces. Humourous questions. Excellent mood. Serious work. Guys, you really made my eve on that day!

Before leaving for Bali and more fun, more screenings, more parties, a huge party has been organized to close the Java part of the Q! Festival... I was too glad to make the first Drag King Show on the Island that evening, in the most beautiful location on the Beach, the Segara... before we all drunk too much of that interesting cocktail and went crazy on the dance floor under the fireworks, the moon... and the fog.

Drag Festival Berlin 2008

Kings Contest at the Gay Village in Rome

The story is: I did not want to go to Rome. I did not like the idea of a Contest at all!! Then Ivan (the Terrible, he earns his name..) and Julius were talking to me, convincing me it would be a lot of fun on stage. And it was!! All the performers from Peru, Mexico, through the States, till all the way to Belgium, France and Germany, had a hard job  and loads of joy to impress the professional Jury made of film makers, script writers, actors, singers and journalists... They themselves had a hard job to nominate the 3 best performances of the evening achieving the first KINGS Village event.. I was very honoured to win the first Prize, grazie, Roma!

Could this have been a best birthday present? Because the most exceptional event will have been the presence of my father and mother and teacher Diane Torr, on the exact day of my artistic birth 6 years ago. Yeah! I had to celebrate this by offering her an hommage performance :-)

I still have in my nose the smell of the pine trees and in my hear the uninterrupted song of the crickets invading the open air backstage... the beautiful garden of Julius' place... I felt really like home in Roma, thanks to my bothers there who opened their home so lovely to me.

The most moving thing was to feel being understood in a deeper way than usual, too, and the way the italian groups I saw there or even already in Berlin is near to my understanding of performances and "mise en scène", as we say in French. I could relate well to the esthetics and the dramatics, probably the French are nearer to the Italians than both are ready to admit.. ;-)  I became a fan of Eyes wild drag.. Julius & Kyrahm... see you soon, dears.

Have a look for a 5-minute report on TV on this exceptionnal event on Donna TV!

Enjoy!!!

Or listen to the interviews of King Alberto from London and myself on deegay radio!

Slam contest at the Kesselhaus

Waow, la Kulturbrauerei, what a venue, oh dear!!!!! Le trac me prend dès que je rentre, je sens que je vais oublier mon texte appris trop tard, en montant les marches de la scène, je décide de couper 2 strophes, et puis j'empoigne le micro, j'oublie tout, les mots s'envolent dans la salle attentive, et je sais et je sens que ce n'en restera pas à une première fois..

Représentons la Rotes Haus

ROTES HAUS . Repräsentanten der Nacht . Schauplätze einer MetropoleKuratiert von Lena Braun im Künstlerhaus Bethanien/Kunstraum Kreuzberg

Die Ausstellung ROTES HAUS nimmt sich wie Otto Dix, Conrad Felixmüller, George Grosz, Ludwig Meidner und Lyonel Feiniger zu Zeiten des Expressionismus, die Großstadt zum Thema. Die Expressionisten sahen die Großstadt als gesellschaftlichen Lebensraum, thematisierten Architektur in ihrer ganzen Brisanz und sahen den Mensch nicht als Individuum, sondern in seiner Funktion als gesellschaftliches Wesen. Sie versuchten den ‚Moloch’, dem sie selbst erlagen, objektiv darzustellen. Bars, Bordelle und alle Formen von großstädtischem Vergnügen wurden selbst genossen, die gesellschaftskritischen Abbilder entstammten eigenen Beobachtungen und Erfahrungen. Das Treiben in den Tempeln der Nacht, das düster-grelle Straßenbild Berlins – von Grosz selbst als „Gewimmel besessener Menschentiere“ betitelt, beides ist heute anders und anders motiviert, aber auch wir haben Masken, den Mob, Mitläufer, Voyeure und drastische Bilder – 2008. Es geht auch jetzt um die Überforderung der Wahrnehmung, die Gleichzeitigkeit der Geschehnisse, das organisierte Chaos...

Wie sehen Künstler, die in Berlin leben und arbeiten ihre Stadt? Welche Position beziehen sie? Die des Kritikers, die des Betrachters, die des Machers, des Involvierten, des stillen Genießers? Was sind heute die Schauplätze unserer Metropole und wozu dienen sie? Zur Zerstreuung oder Kommunikation, zur Zusammenrottung oder Selbstauflösung? Wie lässt sich die heutige Doppelbödigkeit einer Metropole abbilden, darstellen, expressiv erlebbar machen? In der Ausstellung ROTES HAUS beziehen 29 junge internationale bildende und darstellende Künstler Stellung dazu.

VERNISSAGE: 4. Juli 2008, 19 Uhr  +++ AUSSTELLUNGSDAUER: 5. Juli - 17. August 2008

+++ AUSSTELLUNGSORT: Kunstraum/Kreuzberg Bethanien, Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin. Öffnungszeiten: täglich 12-19 Uhr

Première of "Désarmés" in Tel'Aviv

Read the full article also here: haaretz.com

"Fucking Different Tel'Aviv", the third of the serie "Fucking Different" after Berlin and New York has been released and screened for the Opening of the Tel Aviv LGBT Film Festival on June 23rd... In "Désarmés - Surrender" (November Wanderin, 2008), the secretive and melancholic French dancer Daniel is invited to perform at the Israeli Modern Dance Company, directed by the choregrapher Avi, even more famous for his numerous sex encounters in Tel'Aviv.. I won't tell more :-) but for sure it is a fucking different gay short!

Happy and honored to perform for the opening in front of all the Festival Guests from all over the world, and quite a lot of acquaintances here, and even dear friends after a couple of stays there... The backstage of the Cinemathèque is quite simple.... it is just behind the screen, and it is... transparent! Nobody can see me, but I see the audience in front of me. Thrilling feeling of being invisible before getting very visible on stage! By 40° C my gaffer bands melt and I have to scratch them off my skin not to feel too awkward. It is quite historic for me, as I never show my chest, but - at the end, I decide for transgender pride!

Thanks tranny-bros for your great support and your commitment during the Festival. Yes, we are all beautiful! :-)

Drag Festival

My friend visiting from Amsterdam shows me a picture which could have been the source of inspiration for "Femme Like You" and "Torn" that I was performing last night at the Werkstatt der Kulturen - a favourite of the audience that the Festival organizer had asked me to perform again... As far as I remember, I created this performance 3 years ago (gosh), obnubilated by the idea of a turning point to change quickly between the genders, realizing that eventually I was the turning point, as soon as I would turn around..

Rendez-Vous de Minuit au Bar de toutes les Déraisons...

Meine Lieben,

Zazie de Paris hat mich charmanterweise zu Ihrer glamoureusen SHOW "Rendez-Vous de Minuit" unter der wunderschönen Zelt der Bar Jeder Vernunft am 31. Mai eingeladen, die in der Tat um exakt Mitternacht startet. Als einer unter vielen Künstlern des reichhaltigen Abendsprogramms werde ich auf französisch singen, und vielleicht doch auch ein bißchen auf english slamen... mehr werde ich nicht verraten - viel lieber würde ich Euch allen in dieser magischen Nacht im Kerzenlicht der kleinen Tischen sehen zu können, damit Ihr bei mir seid wenn ich einen kleinen Traum realisiere..

In diesem Sinne - visitez la tente de toutes les déraisons, wie der Huguenotte zu sagen pflegte.. ;-)

Au plaisir de vous y retrouver,

Océan

Sündikat Party in Zürich

Well - that was quite a welcome at the airport already! nice entry outside the European Community..

The location where the party announced to be a sin by its only name is wonderful and will indeed be the set for the nicest discussions, appartés in the dark, words full of respect and astonishment, explosions of laugh and joy, on the limpid reflections of the Limmat glittering in the moon...

Michelle is such a subtle photographer that I can hardly see her during the technical rehearsal.

Great atmosphere at the dinner for the artists, the feeling of a family again while dancing like mad with the local matadors and beautiful women who came from Lausanne, Bern or even Italia to enjoy the special mood after the show.

2nd European Transgender Council

Waow, that was quite a family happening!! Hundreds of participants from all over the world gathered at Rathaus Schöneberg to discuss sharp transgender issues. Vibrant feeling of belonging together still by being all very different. Tangible shared need for political action. And palpable sweaty emotions at the show and party in the SO36 on the last night.. Something magical. Watch the Gender Wall of Berlin breaking down:

Première à Paris, 100ème sur scène..

My 100st time on stage. And this on the hype stage of La Flêche d'Or. Couldn't dream of any better location..

Very first time: singing in my native tongue and imagine: everybody understands!!! No need for translations on posters, projections, flyers, NOTHING. Just my voice and the audience. And this audience of course knows "le 3ème Sexe" or "Dure Limite", jumps on the dance floor and sings with me. Awesome...

Shalom, Tel'Aviv! אוסיו

Actually I was only there to shoot that beautiful film about a French dancer falling in love with an awesome Israeli choregrapher, and wanted to have a break after the shoot...  jump into the Dead Sea and discover Jerusalem... but then it took me ages to have the show translated in hebrew and write it down on the rolls for the Homophobia multimedia song ;-)

So I had plenty of time to get more into the town and learn to love it more than I had thought first. And first experience as  fully socialized as a gay guy. Gosh, the boys are really hot over there..

Ok it took some time to understand where the shows where, at all - but as I promised to come back in June, I will work some more on my hebrew!

At any case: I loved the name of the locations... Evita, Femme Fatale, and then No Limit! it could not fit better to me ;-)

Closing Zinegoak08: the wings of cinema...

Could there be a more beautiful name for a film festival? :-) Bilbao looks like my native town. Here the cathedral is white, there black, but the streets of the old neighboodhood are so similar I could mistaken and feel I am in France and not in Spain.

It is nice here, 19°C, sun and fountains, I'm so much travelling these days I can't even remember if we have spring or winter. It changes every months, the seasons have been accelerating like mad, I am now on my way for years already?

Again that feeling of urgency invades me. I would love to take all these impressions with me, back to Berlin, pack them in texts and notes, and sing and slam and play them soon...

The honour to perform for the Fiesta de Clausura is bound to a great challenge. How do I make it with 2 stages, one is 1.80m high and I must jump!?! The wall is black, the projection too dark, the subtitles won't show up, and there is no light?!? the DVD players are not linked to the speakers, and the DJ can't see me?!? An equation which will teach me. It is never about the technique, it is about the energy on stage... and this, I could give more than enough ;-) But indeed, chicos, sois fantasticos. Muchas gracias a Serafin, Pati y Xavier, los mas rapidos technicos que nunca he visto durante el tour!!

Performing at the Roze Dagen in Amsterdam...

That was an exceptional show. No, no, not on stage, but all around the show!!

Because for the first time my brother was there, he who usually composes the music, he who never ever saw me on stage!!!!!!!!! A luxury to have him at the technique :-) following my voice every second, regulating the volume of the music perfectly all along the show, so enhancing the mise en scène of the concept.. and because it was his birthday!!!

Because it was the final party of the Roze Dagen Film Festival, where the screenings of Risk, Stretch or Die were hopelessly sold out, and so it was at the Hot Pepper Club too..

.. and because I met wonderful people, talking suddenly so personaly to me, thanking me for the inspiration to find themselves even more motivation to go on stage again, or to live even more between the genders. Amsterdam, your questions were the toughest ever at the Q&As, but your answers were the nicest to me. Thanks and see you soon - maybe already this summer!!

Nomination for a MIX Brazil Award...

It hit me by surprise! Never thought I would be nominated for an Award as the personality who influenced most the Festival this year. The 3 nominees had a great pleasure licking the trophey of Tino!!! :-) What an eve to celebrate the end of the MIX Brazil 2007...

Kinging at the legendary à Loca in Sao Paulo!!!

After the fantastic party with the girls last Saturday at the Gloria Club, I could not leave Saõ Paulo without checking out the boys.. :-)

The club is so OFF that the driver can not find it at once... I wonder why the club is so famous and said to be the most incredible transgender club on earth??? The Maîtresse de Maison, a very tall, slim, blonde Queen, is welcoming me warmly and shows me all around the place. Everything is true, there are little swimming pools and sauna places like séparées, misleading dark corridors, columns and stairs, I think this must be the cousin club of the Schwuz in Berlin - underground style.. I feel home.

The boys fraction of the filmmakers from the MIX Festival, from Buenos Aires, Los Angeles or Hamburg, are all here in the first row to support me and I see them glowing of joy and excitement. The screen is much too far away from me, i can not interact as I ususally do, but it seems nobody cares: I am the first Drag King ever to perform in Loca, they say, and again I must see the boys puzzled and hardly believing I can change so quickly... some of them will come to me after the show to touch my beard or even my chest (no, not more than that ;-) making me through this simple gesture simply and naturally one of them.

Garotos! Pomba! muito obrigado..

God! Shave me... in Saõ Paulo

For a premiere it was quite one - Cris Barbie made an incredible job by customizing the party to the first Drag King Show in Sao Paulo! The doors of the Gloria Club, an ancient church (!!!), had to open one hour before to allow a thousand (awesome and beautiful) Paulistas...

I feel quite isolated from the ultra-loud party happening downstairs, where the most pretty girls I ever saw are kissing wildly on the dance floor, as my backstage is in the mezzanine, with 2 bodyguards in front of the stairs and of the curtain - an over-air-conditioned area where only very few selected VIPs have access. I wonder if I will be able, out of the blue, to give them a glimpse of what it is, what it feels like to blow the gender frames, as the flyer says, to be transgender..

The moment the spot follows me from the upper stairs to the stage, i see the bodyguards making the way free,  and see, Paulistas, here you are, you give me your attention at once, I see you all being amazed and confused to see me as a boy, as a girl, as eveything inbetween, I see your eyes wide open and your cameras all lightened as I shave my second face half in the white spot, I feel you dance and  jump with me on the 3rd sex sound, you gave me such an incredible energy and I go on, I nearly lose my voice on Homofobia, I see you shout and scream and raise your arms in front of the powerful clip of Saskia about the Parada Gay de Varsovia, I see you fight to get one of the flyers I throw all around the stage... and you say yeah! when I ask us to fight for our rights an freedom.

After the show i usually give one T-shirt to my hosts, but this time it is the only other drag king if the night, the oh so nice and cute Juliana from the Gloria Club, who gives me her own, I put it on at once to party "all night long" with the Mix Film festival crew...

Une première: first part at the Francophonic Festival Poetry Slam Night

Nobody would believe it but YES, I am shy, but so honoured to have been invited by Céline (Robinet) and Nicolas' Come4Event team to make that 1st part of our french Poetry Slam Stars Rouda & Lyor.. To cheer me up, Céline me dit "ne t'en fais pas, on ne va pas te vendre comme un poetry slamer! ;-)"

For this first work together it was about to experience the mix of a new style: the meeting of transgender performance with spoken word. And what a cool mix within a great event! The only snag of the evening: of our two new head-set mics only one decided to work. All right, for the 3rd show in a row with a mic' problem I think that might be the very last time. Because the next time I wanna have my very own and new one!

Je ne pourrais même pas dire combien les mots et les rythmes et les gestes et les yeux du Collectif 129h ont su me toucher ce soir-là, en plein coeur, comme une révélation que le slam pouvait aussi naître en moi.

Merci à Céline de m'avoir permis de partager ces moments forts.

Et merci à Anne pour la musique..

www.francophonic-festival.de

Lost in Generation DVD Release Party!!!

WHAT A NIGHT!!! :-) producer Kristian petersen and all film crews of all 3 films are here to celebrate the DVD release of Lost in Generation... And because I am playing the butch they are looking for in "Cherchez la butch", I'm here to perform too - first time ever with an head set mic system which has been marvellously functionning thanks the help of Ingo, and of course the technique decided during the show that without Ingo it was definitely not worth it ;-)

Anyway the whole film crew had still lots of fun at the Schwuz' L-Tunes party before finishing the night at the Porn Film Festival Lounge im L.U.X... after all there is some sex in the film too... right? and even more: fun fun fun!!!

www.gmfilms.de/gmfilmslostingen

International Drag King Extravaganza @ Vancouver

"Je chante.... dans le port de Vancouver..." I heard as a kid on the french radio Véronique Sanson singing that refrain so often that as I heard Risk, Stretch or Die was taken on in the Media &Arts Programme at IDKE9 PLUS the Dure Limite video clip as a performance at the Showcase: I HAD TO GO OVER THERE!!!www.idkevancouver.com

SHOWCASE /  SATURDAY NIGHT

Tonight is the Showcase evening, a packed movie theater for a show of the superlatives: great performers from so many countries... Ireland, Australia, the States, Canada... we all rock the place, acrobats, multimedia performances, theater,... I only wonder how I could eventually be the only live performer?! But boy, what a show. The most professional I ever experienced certainely, the most demanding, and the nicest by far...

Thanks Tania for all the shots of the whole week-end that you shared with us all:

Tania A. on flickr.com

The photographer Lary Campbell I met by chance on the bus 2 days ago is there too and makes one of the nicest pics! He says: "Océan - on the picture, your body replaces the word "man".  Fun, huh?" Thanks, Lary!

But the nicest, most pleasant moments are not to be shared here... or maybe a glimpse just to give you an idea of how it feels to meet brothers and sisters, get the warm feeling to be part of a welcoming community dedicated to define a new masculinity, with tenderness, openess and respect, far beyond the mere artistic creativity...

At any case: the sweetest hosts ever were Ed and Missy, thanks you from the heart for being so welcoming and so kind to me!

DRAGDOM / FRIDAY NIGHT The Penthouse Midnight Club is a... what do they call it... a gogo dancer club? a table dance club? whatever... I loved it at once :-)

The backstage upstairs is freeeeezing, and most of the time completely deserted from all performers... who of course don't want to miss the show hosted by Malaika Millions and Heywood!

Gosh, the audience is so excited and in a good mood... what a feeling to be challenged to bring them even further.. I was so happy as a nice couple from North Vancouver came to me and said: "you are bringing a new dimension here, because you are actually not only a drag king, we understood you as a man and a woman, we sincerely felt with you and in your body the real struggle between the genders".